Wealthy Investors Shift Money

NEW YORK -- Wealthy investors were dropping mutual funds in favor of other assets well before a market-timing scandal was unveiled, according to a recent survey.

Mutual funds dropped to about 6% of assets as of August, down from 11% in 2001, among investors with at least $5 million in net worth, according to a report from Spectrem Group, a consulting firm in Chicago. At 6%, mutual funds fell to the second-least-popular asset class...